Editing Mezentius

{{Short description|Figure in Roman mythology}}
[[File:Relief mezence.jpg|right|thumb|''Mezentius wounded, preserved by his intrepid son Lausus'', first prize of the [[Prix de Rome]] by [[Louis-Léon Cugnot]], 1859]]

In [[Roman mythology]], '''Mezentius''' was an [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] king, and father of [[Lausus]]. Sent into exile because of his cruelty, he moved to [[Latium]]. He reveled in bloodshed and was overwhelmingly savage on the battlefield, but more significantly to a Roman audience he was a ''contemptor divum'', a "despiser of the gods."

He appears in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Aeneid]]'', primarily book ten, where he aids [[Turnus]] in a war against [[Aeneas]] and the [[Troy|Trojans]]. While in battle with Aeneas, he is critically injured by a spear blow, but his son [[Lausus]] bravely blocks Aeneas's final blow. Lausus is then killed by Aeneas, and Mezentius is able to escape death for a short while. Once he hears of Lausus' death, he feels ashamed that his son died in his place and returns to battle on his horse Rhaebus in order to avenge him. He is able to keep Aeneas on the defensive for some time by riding around Aeneas and throwing javelins. Eventually, Aeneas kills the horse with a spear and pins Mezentius underneath. He is overcome by Aeneas, but remains defiant and refuses to ask for mercy, as [[Turnus]] later does; he only asks that he be buried with his son.

In the traditional myth that predates the ''Aeneid'', Mezentius actually outlived Aeneas, who 'disappeared' into the river which Aeneas became associated with in a hero cult. However, since his benefactor [[Maecenas]] was a native Etruscan, Virgil portrayed Mezentius as a tyrant,<ref>{{cite book
  | last = 
  | first = 
  | author-link = 
  | title = Dictionary of Classical Mythology
  | publisher = Penguin
  | year = 1990
  | location = London
  | pages = 273–74
  | url = 
  | doi = 
  | id = 
  | isbn = 978-0-14-051235-9}}</ref> attributing to him personally the evils of which the Greek authors had previously accused the Etruscans, such as torture and savagery, an ethnic prejudice already present in the ''[[Homeric Hymns]]''.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} Thus he created something of a scapegoat of Mezentius and portrayed the Etruscan people as a good race who fight alongside Aeneas.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{Aeneid character|VII|648; also VIII.482; X.786–907.}}
* [[Livy]], Book I.

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Meudler |first=Marcel |title=Mézence, un théonyme messapien? |journal=Revue des Études Anciennes |volume=105 |date=2003 |issue=1 |pages=5-15 |doi=10.3406/rea.2003.5647 |lang=FR |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_2003_num_105_1_5647}}
* Rivero-García, Luis & Librán-Moreno, M.. (2011). "New Light on Virgil's Mezentius: A New Homeric Model and Etymological Wordplay". In: ''Paideia'' LXVI: 457–489.

{{Etruscans}}

{{Aeneid}}
[[Category:Characters in the Aeneid]]
[[Category:Etruscan heroes]]
[[Category:Etruscan kings]]